Thread: FL:OC schools:Hispanics can join biracial committee as white

Text size: increase text sizedecrease text size
Orange County schools: Hispanics can join biracial committee as whites
Activists "reject" compromise, but want a voice in review of school closures

VÃ*ctor Manuel Ramos | OrlandoSentinel.com Staff
2:16 PM EDT, April 23, 2009

A group of Hispanic activists were told today that in order to participate on the Orange County schools biracial committee, they would have to be counted as whites. The committee is part of the review process for the district's proposed school closures.

Activists rejected the district's compromise, calling it ridiculous and an insult to their culture.

They had gathered Thursday morning outside the headquarters of the Orange County School Board to make the case that Hispanics should be included in the committee established to oversee district integration efforts.

The biracial committee at the center of this debate already has been the source of controversy for its role in reviewing school closure plans that would affect many black students.

Related links

*
Hispanic activist to Orange schools: Don't leave us out
*
Hispanosphere
Covering Orlando's Latino community...

Keeping Mickey or Miguel away? Florida voter rules debated

Immigration enforcement series wins Pulitzer Prize

Advocate: new ESOL proposal is a hastily crafted bill

Orlando wants Hispanics to 'Buy Local'

Hispanics encountering hostility in the South, report says


Orange County Schools spokesman Dylan Thomas told reporters that the district is under a 45-year-old federal court order that specifically mandates a citizens committee made up of 5 blacks and 5 whites. However, he said the district is considering a way in which Hispanics might join.

"It's the intention of the school board counsel to talk to the biracial committee ... to consider expanding their membership," Thomas said. "Those who may be in the panel could very well represent the Hispanic ethnicity if they can declare themselves as white by race."

The reaction was immediate among members and supporters of Frente Unido 436, the east Orange county group calling for Hispanics not to be left out of committee deliberations. They thought it ridiculous that Hispanics -- who could be white, black or of mixed races but generally identify as white in census forms -- would have to pick a race to receive representation.

"I reject that," said ElÃ*as Rico Piccard, the group's president.

Armando RamÃ*rez, an Osceola activist who joined the protest, went further: "It's an insult to our cultural roots."

And Violeta Burgos, another activist from east Orlando, said the Hispanic population is large enough that it deserves a voice in critical decisions such as school closures.

"I am angry about it," Burgos said. "We don't have to be counted under any other group to be considered as the largest minority in the county."

At stake, those activists said, would be a permanent seat in school district decisions affecting minority groups. Up to 600 Hispanic students attend the six schools slated for closure, said Zoraida RÃ*os-Andino, another activist.

"Most of the Hispanic parents are not aware that this is going on," she said. "That is a real concern. This is not a biracial issue only."

Instead, they see the committee as a "multicultural" group.

Thomas said the school decision does not come out of ignorance of the Hispanic community's size, but said the school has "to work by what the court order has been." That decision required the district to have a committee made up of blacks and non-blacks.

The 1964 order establishing the committee was in response to civil rights struggles against the racial segregation of African-Americans. At the time, there were no students classified as Hispanics in the school system. Today, Latinos make up the largest minority group in the region and the country.

VÃ*ctor Manuel Ramos can be reached at vramos@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6186.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/mor ... ?track=rss

That's funny! Latinos are Caucasian, so I really never understood their "minority" group status to begin with.

"Most of the Hispanic parents are not aware that this is going on," she said. "That is a real concern. This is not a biracial issue only."

Could it be that most of the parents are illiterate in Spanish as well as English? And it is not biracial in any sense of the word, since HISPANIC IS NOT A RACE!
These people are apparently being taken seriously, as some study Lou Dobbs quoted the other night referred to Hispanic/Latino in comparison to white, black and asian. Dobbs did hear from me!